Dems call on Ryan to provide free feminine hygiene products in House bathrooms

A pair of Democratic New York lawmakers have requested that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) make feminine hygiene products available for free in all House bathrooms.

The request, detailed in a Friday letter from Reps. Grace Meng and Sean Patrick Maloney, comes after a week after Maloney’s office was denied a request for reimbursement.

My office bought tampons for female visitors and our staff. Then we got an email from @HouseAdmnGOP telling us we couldn’t use funds to purchase a necessary hygiene product. That’s ridiculous. More info: pic.twitter.com/8jyX3O4PeS

— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) June 28, 2018

They called on Ryan to provide the products in all bathrooms operated by the House, according to a statement from Meng’s office.

{mosads}“Feminine hygiene products are a basic and essential need for women,” Meng said. 

Capitol Hill should be a “welcoming place” for women who work there or are visiting, Maloney added.

“Women have been treated as second-class citizens for far too long,” she said.

Maloney pointed out on Twitter that congressional funds can be used on “executive tissue holders, embellished letter openers and brass bookends,” but not tampons.

Things you can buy with Congressional funds:
✅”executive tissue holders”
✅embellished letter openers
✅brass bookends
❌tampons https://t.co/BBspFkOMrx

— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) June 28, 2018

Meng is sponsoring the Menstrual Equity for All Act, which would require certain groups of girls and women to have access to the products.

She has already convinced the Federal Emergency Management Agency to add feminine care products to the list of items made available to homeless assistance providers, her statement said. Menstural products are now also reportedly available to female inmates for free after Meng lobbied the Federal Bureau of Prisons.